Utterly beautiful. I love it. Death in Venice, based on the novel by Thomas Mann, takes place in Venice where composer Gustav Ashenbach, spends his last days. The film is very slow paced, capturing every moment. It has many long shots that just depict the mellow mundane days in Venice at the beach. Kids are playing, people are laughing, strawberry sellers are walking around. However, I wouldn't put this film in the category of realism.

What is beauty? Is it aestetic quality or is it what lies beyond that? What is an artist? All those questions were raised in the film.

I especially liked the scene where the composer was watching the sand in the sanclock going down. The words in that scene were deep and thought inducing.In the film Gustav Ashenbach develops this infatuation with a boy called Tadzio. He follows him and watches him from afar. There was little dialogue but their expressions said it all. Eventhough one might regard such an infatuation as perverted, seeing that the man is old and the boy is in his early adolescence, in the film it didn't feel that way. It felt like it was the purest and most pristine forms of love.